could this all be from a bad epidural?

I am a pretty healthy 23 year old. I had a baby in Dec of 2008 and had an epidural that went terribly wrong. They poked me about 10 times, it didn't work and I ended up having a spinal head ache for a week...and I had to get a blood patch done to fill the gaping hole in my spinal cord. Ever since then I have been expierencing dizziness, blurred vision, feeling like I'm having a head rush all the time, pressure in my head and ears, feeling disconnected, pain in my neck that causes terribe tension headaches that las for days, numbness and tingling in my hands and feet, have been seeing spot in my eyes, feeling like I am looking at things through a fish bowl, and had one episode of double vision. I have been to and eye doctor who said that the double vision was from one of my eyes being strained because it is higher than the other. So she gave me a new script for glasses with prizm in them, and it has seemed to help the strain. I have also seen an ENT for the pressure in my head and nothing. I have never had allergies before all of this happening but thats what they ended up treating me for. I am at a loss, everytime I see my doc for my headaches and above symptoms and ask if it could have anything to do with the epidural she just looks at me and says no. I am terrified that it could be a tumor or something. I had a CT done in March when the double vision occured but they didn't see anything. I also have to add that I was at Urgent care yesterday (for a tension headache I had for 4 days) and the doctor was looking at my eyes and noticed that my left pupil was smaller than the right, not by very much but you can tell. He didn't say anything about it but now its worrying me. So to sum everything up I am just curious if this all could be related to the epidural, and if it is...or if its not where do I go from here? I don't want my doctor to think I am a crazy person! Please help! Thanks :)

Thanks for using the forum. I am happy to address your questions, and my answer will be based on the information you provided here. Please make sure you recognize that this forum is for educational purposes only, and it does not substitute for a formal office visit with your doctor.

Without the ability to examine you and obtain a history, I can not tell you what the exact cause of your symptoms is. However I will try to provide you with some useful information.

You have described a lot of complaints all of which can not be attributed to a single cause. The most common side effects are low pressure headaches, which you had experience and were treated for, local pain, infection, allergy to the anesthetic agent or drop in blood pressure at the time of the procedure. It is extremely rare to have such long lasting profound side effects from an epidural and I don't feel at this time that it is the reason for all your problems. The only way the headaches may be related to the epidural is that you still had a persistent spinal leak. The headaches in that case would be positional, with relief when you lie down and reappearance of the headaches as you sit up. If this is the case, then you should be evaluated and treated for a leak again.

Unequal pupils also known an Anisocoria, is a very common findings and almost 20% of the general population have unequal pupils. In the setting of a normal neurological exam, this does not mean anything..... more precisely unequal pupils on their own do not point towards a brain tumor or other brain pathology.

People with chronic headaches can have all sorts of neurological symptoms. Your headache may be the main issue that you need to address. There are several different times of headaches, migraine headaches being the most common. Migraine headaches are very often misdiagnosed as sinus headaches or allergy related headaches. Classically they are sharp, on one side of the head, associated with nausea or vomiting, associated with visual symptoms like spots or flashes in your visual fields and aversion to light and sound. If untreated for a long time, they can convert to chronic daily headaches, which are just nagging headaches one experiences everyday. Stress and anxiety also aggravate headaches.
Migraine headaches can have other neurological symptoms such as numbness, tingling, light headedness etc.
I would advise you to see a neurologist, so that you can have a full neurological exam. In the setting of a normal neurological exam and a normal head CT, I would then focus on treating your headaches. If however they find something on your exam which is abnormal, they may order further brain imaging.

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